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Native bee and wasp research to help WA farmers

Trap used to monitor native bees and wasps in the West Australian Wheatbelt.

Mark Murphy

Research into the numbers of bees and wasps in the West Australian Wheatbelt could help local farmers plan future landscape use.

University of Western Australia researcher Mark Murphy, has spent the past two spring and summers, catching native bees and wasps in the Wheatbelt.

He looked for the insects in areas with different levels of native vegetation and rainfall and will use the data to look into the future, to see how climate change could affect the insect world.

Mr Murphy says they chose to focus on beneficial species.

"You have got a lot of harmful insects out there, but these ones by and large, are involved in services that are of value to the ecosystem and also of value to the production landscape and potentially farmers as well.

"There are lots of small parasitic wasps and some of those are involved in controlling things like aphids and other problem insects for crops.

"There could be potential spill over effects were these species are flying between a patch of remnant bush and then into crop land to control on farm pests," he said.